Thinking

Gucci Loves New York…

Gucci “Loves” New York, but perhaps New York does not share the sentiment? In an effort to promote the opening of its flagship store in New York, luxury brand Gucci recently launched www.GucciLovesNY.com, a site that pays homage to the city by featuring the favorite chic hangouts of the brand’s CEO and creative director – including restaurants, clubs, boutiques and spas. One problem…the economic development arm for the State of New York is locked in a dispute with Gucci over use of the legendary “heart” symbol synonymous with the “I love NY” campaign. >>Full Story

Thoughts// Kudos to the marketing team at Gucci. They could have played it safe and celebrated the new Gucci flagship store by running one of those run-of-the-mill fashion campaigns we’ve become accustomed; yes, the ones with super skinny blondes enjoying the party life (not that there’s anything wrong with it).

Instead however, they chose to pay homage to the city that is the fashion capital of the country and built a whole campaign around it. Visitors to the site can view locations on a Google “mashup” map and read about why each location makes “Gucci love New York.” The site also has blogs from a group of fashion bloggers, all of whom also add their favorite New York places to go. Visitors can participate by submit their own posts, complete with a photo of themselves in front of their favorite place.

And what’s more, the company also designed 600 commemorative purses and 100% of the proceeds from the sale of these purses are slated to be given away to a charity that maintains childrens’ playgrounds at Central Park (at $600 or so a pop, that adds up nicely).

The campaign also has a ton of potential to extend itself to other channels: Madonna’s “I love NY” which plays in the background would make for popular ringtones, they could leverage the photos on Flickr, perhaps add a Twitter feed to track the hippest places frequented by Gucci staff and of course some point of sale interaction with customers.

Despite all of these positives, Gucci’s love for NY is unrequited. As of this writing, the legal wrangling over the use of the “heart” symbol continues; in addition, some fashionista bloggers are up in arms about the fact that none of the bloggers on the site are from NYC. Guess you can’t please them all!